


Behavioral Tendencies

by MyBloodyUnicorn



Category: Almost Human
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-10
Updated: 2014-04-30
Packaged: 2018-01-15 07:43:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1296922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyBloodyUnicorn/pseuds/MyBloodyUnicorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the <a href="http://almost-human-km.livejournal.com/1144.html?thread=10616#t10616">Almost Human Kink Meme</a>.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [Almost Human Kink Meme](http://almost-human-km.livejournal.com/1144.html?thread=10616#t10616).

“Detective Stahl.” The MX snaps its head toward Valerie. Red lights skim over the surface of the its face, processing data. “Are you aware of the effect your presence has on Doctor Lom?”

Valerie checks over her shoulder again, looking for a gap in the cars. “Hang on a minute, Max,” she says. It’s been a back-breaking day and now all she wants to do is end her shift and head home. She sees an opening and guns it, entering the flow of speeding traffic. “So, what’s this about Rudy?” she asks.

“In your last seventeen interactions with Doctor Lom, my sensors registered an increase in heart rate, respiration, and pupillary dilation. During four such interactions, Doctor Lom also experienced an increased blood flow to his penis and testicles.”

Valerie can’t bring herself to look at the MX. “You _scanned his ball_ s? Max, just... don’t do that, okay?”

“Affirmative.” The red lights continue to swirl and Valerie doesn’t want to know what data he might be compiling now.

“Max,” she says. “Relay the ten most recent messages from my personal inbox.”

The MX begins to read aloud a lengthy email from Valerie’s mother, discussing plans for an upcoming vacation. Valerie’s already read it—she just needs a moment to think. She easily tunes out the expressionless droning of her partner.

 _Rudy, huh?_ she thinks. Men have been over tripping over themselves around Valerie since puberty, but she kind of likes watching Rudy get flustered. He always says something that’s just so wrong and then tries to backpedal out of it. His knobbly adam’s apple bobs like crazy and his eyes go even wider.

 _It’s cute,_ she thinks. _He’s cute. In his own way._

“Max,” she says. The MX goes silent, waiting for a command. “Does Rudy experience these symptoms around anybody else?”

“Processing.” The red lights appear and vanish. “My data shows Doctor Lom has experienced increased heart rate and respiration during interactions with at least fourteen different individuals at the precinct. Would you like me to name them?”

Valerie shakes her head. _Probably just social anxiety_ , she concludes. _Nothing to do with me after all._

The MX’s red lights flare again. “However, further analysis shows Doctor Lom experienced signs of sexual arousal during interactions with only three individuals: you, Detective Kennex, and DRN-0167.”

“Thank you, Max,” she says. “Please continue reading my mail.”

The MX picks up where it left off and Valerie is free to think again.

 _Me, John, and Dorian…_  She drums her fingers on the steering wheel. _I’m going to need to collect further data,_ she thinks. She steers the cruiser onto an off-ramp, heading toward the precinct.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hi, Rudy,” Valerie says. She comes down the stairs into Rudy’s cluttered space. Her MX follows closely behind.

He looks up and pushes the magnifying goggles onto his forehead. “Detective Stahl,” he says, “And to what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you today? Something the matter with your partner?”

She smiles at him. “Come on, just ‘Valerie’ is fine,” she says.

“Right, of course.” He clears his throat. “What can I do for you, _Valerie_?”

She holds up a battered tablet. “Finally got this released for you from the evidence lock-up,” she says.

“Oh, brilliant,” he says. He holds out his hands and Valerie places the tablet in them, letting her fingers brush against his.

“I was very careful with it,” she says. “Just like I promised.”

“Th-thank you,” he says.

“No, thank _you_ for loaning it to us,” she says. “Without your help, we never would have found CrispinX.” She takes another step towards Rudy. “In fact, I’d like to buy you a drink to thank you for your help. Are you busy tonight?”

“Uh, I was just, um, working on a, it’s not important, sort of a side project… thing.” He gestures vaguely to something behind him. “So… you and me and, what? Detective Paul and John and maybe Dorian all going out to McQuaid’s then?”

“I can’t invite them too, if you want,” she says. “I was sort of thinking it would just be you and me, though.”

Rudy’s eyes seem to pop even further. “I… yeah, of course, no, I would, I would _love_ that, being alone, with just you.”

“Good,” she says. “I’ve got a couple last things to do and then I’ll meet you back here in… an hour? That sound good?”

“Yes! Good, great, in fact. I will see you in… one hour…” he says.

“Come on, Max,” Valerie says to her MX. “Let’s put you to bed for the night. See you in a bit, Rudy.”

When she reaches the top of the stairs, she hears a tremendous crash from down below. She smiles to herself and exits Rudy’s lab.

==

Rudy scrambles to pick up the assortment of tools he’s just knocked off his work bench. He throws them onto a nearby table and hurries to the back of his lab. He’s carved out a space for Dorian back there, his own room as it were, although it doesn’t have a door or even walls, exactly. Rudy usually just says _knock, knock!_ before entering Dorian’s space but he knows Dorian is in his charging station at the moment.

He flips a series of switches, muttering under his breath, “Come on, wake up, Dorian, wake up…”

Dorian’s eyes snap open. “Rudy,” he says. “What’s going on? I barely have half a charge, man. Why’d you wake me up?”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Rudy says. “I’ll let you get back to sleep in a minute but… I think Valerie has just asked me on a date.”

“Detective Stahl. Asked you on a date.” Dorian pauses. “Rudy, are you _sure_ about that?”

“Well, she said she wanted to take me out for a drink for helping with a case and I said ‘oh, will other people be there’ and she said, ‘no, it would just be us.’” Rudy chews on his thumbnail anxiously. “Does that… does that sound like a date?”

Dorian’s cheek flares with blue light. “That would appear to be a date, Rudy,” he says.

Rudy slaps his hands together and points at Dorian triumphantly. “Right! I knew it!” he says. “Okay, so now, question: should I… _wear the fedora?_ ”


	3. Chapter 3

“Well,” Valerie says, over the din of McQuaid’s bar. “How do I look?”

She wears Rudy’s fedora, tipped at the slightest angle. She swipes her finger along its edge, nudging the brim down, shadowing her face. She peeps out at Rudy from under the hat, and he is spellbound, bewitched by the sight of her, looking back at him.

“I… it suits you, Detective,” he says.

She grins at him and for possibly the first time in his life, he is utterly speechless.

“Come on, then,” she says. “Let’s get out of here.”

She slips her hand into his as they exit the bar, twining her fingers between his.

“Nice out here tonight, isn’t it?” she asks. “I love the way the city smells after it rains, sort of wet and green.”

 _Petrichor_ , he thinks. _Rainfall displaces the molecules on dry surfaces which sends them up into the air, that’s what you’re smelling. Oh God, is my hand sweaty? I can’t tell if my hand is sweaty._

“Mmm-hmm,” he says.

She looks over at his profile under the electric lights: the beaky nose, the big eyes that give him a perpetually startled look, the rawboned face.

 _He really is beautifu_ l, she thinks.

His eyes dart to her face and away again, a few times in succession.

“Have I… got something on my face?” he asks. He reaches up and brushes at his cheek and nose.

“Yes,” she says. “Hold still a minute.”

She steps in front of him and puts her hands on either side of his face. She leans in and kisses him, tentatively at first. His breath catches for a moment and then he kisses her back, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her in close. The fedora topples off her head to the sidewalk below.

He nudges her cheek with his nose, grinning. “I guess I should have said, ‘hang on to your hat,’ eh?” he says. “Or-or, ‘hang on to _my_ hat,’ as it were, although that doesn’t really sound quite as good, does it?”

“Rudy,” she says gently. “ _Stop talking_.”

“Oh, um, yes, of course, I apolog—”

She cuts him off with another kiss and they stand there under a streetlight, lost to the world around them.

A gust of wind carries the fedora away into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm completely heartbroken that this show is cancelled, you guys.


End file.
